The Perfect Soldier
by Sweet Honey-sempai
Summary: Heero is the Perfect Soldier, but how did he get that way? Meet his mother, Odin Lowe, and Dr. J. See his training as a pilot, his first meetings with Relena and the others, and the aftermath of the war. Eventual 1xR, other pairings implied.
1. April 8th, AC 175 November 19th, AC 180

Disclaimer-I own most of the plot and the dialogue between characters, at least for the beginning chapters. All other dialogue is copyright of Gundam Wing and its producers/writers/directors/actors/etc.

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Prologue

April 7th, AC 175—November 18th, AC 180

* * *

"With this in mind, the colonies ask for complete and total…"

A shot. A scream. Heero Yuy's face twisted in horrific agony as the small missile of lead blasted through his collar bone, splintering the bones so wearied by age and fatigue. The lined face that kept up the hopes of the colonies sagged grotesquely as he sunk to the ground, gasping for breath.

Aralia Yuy covered her mouth and tried to fight down vomiting as she watched her father take in huge gasps of air, making loud rasping sounds from the labor. Quinze and Dekim ran past her and crouched next to Heero. Quinze began shouting orders. Someone call an ambulance. Someone call the police. Someone find who did this and kill him. Vertigo began to take over her brain. Her father was dying before her eyes. Someone had shot him where it was sure to be fatal.

Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, closing her eyes but not her mind against this horror. People rushed around her, screaming and yelling, crying and raging, viciously shoving past her. She was knocked about on the ground but she barely felt the blows of running feet, all she could think was that her father had been murdered in cold blood right before her eyes…

* * *

Aralia screamed again, feeling as if someone was wrenching her spine from her back.

"You're doing fine, Aralia," said the palliating voice of the nurse. "It'll be over soon."

"It'd freakin' better be!" Aralia screamed at her.

The nurse continued smiling, and Aralia could have strangled her for daring to be calm and assured when Aralia felt like her body was being ripped in half. Her husband paced nervously back and forth at the foot of the bed, just behind the doctor, wringing his hands and muttering. Dimly, through her rage at the nurse, Aralia thought it strange that her husband of 3 years, an ex-Alliance commander named Midorikawa Gendo, should be so nervous. All through the pregnancy he had been cool as an icicle, something that had infuriated her…her thoughts were cut off as she screamed again, but this time they were matched by a wail, a wail that at once thrilled her beyond belief and terrified her to the bone.

"Congratulations, it's a boy," the doctor said, rising from his position.

"Give me him!" Aralia gasped.

"A few moments," the doctor answered over the baby's cries. Aralia glared at him. It wasn't exactly comforting to know that the man responsible for delivering and caring for your baby wore glasses that prevented him from total blindness, had a claw in the place of a hand, and preferred to be known by a syllable instead of a name.

Aralia watched with a disgusted fascination as the umbilical cord was cut and carried away by the nurse and the doctor approached to stitch together her skin, and then watched as her baby was cleaned off. Her child. It was numbing to the senses that what had just forced its painful way out of her was now hers to keep to her home for the next two decades. This was something she would love enough to die to protect for the rest of her life.

"Do we have a name for him?" the nurse said.

Aralia's mind was numb as her son was laid in her arms. He was scrawny and small but calm now, and she thought nothing had ever looked so perfect.

"Mrs. Midorikawa, do we have a name yet?" the nurse repeated.

"Hikaru," she said breathlessly, unable to tear her eyes away from her miraculous source of perfection. "Midorikawa Hikaru." She had given in to her Japanese husband's desire to name their child after his home country, but insisted on a name that sounded at least somewhat similar to her late father's.

The nurse bustled around, calling for a wheelchair. "You and Hikaru are going back to your room now."

"Where's Gendo?" Aralia asked, suddenly realizing the absence of her husband.

"He's already there," was the reply. "He left while we were cleaning off the baby."

Aralia pursed her lips and frowned. She would have thought that the father of her beautiful son would be haunting her bedside, begging for her to relinquish the flawless child so he too might hold it and make a bond of hearts with it.

She allowed the nurse to hold the child while she stumbled into the wheelchair, and then reclaimed Hikaru to her own arms. The nurse pushed her out the door and down the hall, towards the residential area of the hospital.

* * *

"I don't quite understand it," the nurse said, frowning at the room. "He should have been waiting here. Maybe he went down to get food or a present for you?"

"Maybe," Aralia said, frowning. Her stomach was beginning to feel an uncomfortably emptiness. She clutched Hikaru tighter to her torso, but the gaping hole was not satisfied.

The nurse was helping her into the bed when she spotted a piece of paper. It was written in Gendo's straightforward handwriting, a dash preceding her name on the outside of the folded paper.

"Could you leave, please?" Aralia asked, looking at the nurse. "This…this is from my husband."

The nurse sighed, a look of pitying omniscience on her face. "Honey, I don't know if you'll want to be alone when you read that note. I've seen that note a hundred times before."

"I want to read it alone," Aralia said firmly.

"If you're sure, honey." The nurse dropped the blanket over Aralia and went from the room, shaking her head sadly.

Aralia unfolded the note. In a voice both loud and soft, she read it to both herself and her child.

* * *

_November 18th, AC 180_

_-Ms. Yuy_

_I have been called back into the Alliance military. As a commander I can have no dealings with someone who follows the rebel cause. _

_After 3 years of marriage, the Alliance still means more to me than you do. That is the plain truth and I will not cover it with lies such as that I am afraid to be a father. Because I am not. I would have loved this child had it not been yours._

_Raise him to be whom you want him to; I can see him only as an enemy from now on. I feel I owe you this warning out of decency: People may be after your life now that I am again in the military. I suggest that you move away as quickly as possible. I advise you to keep his last name "Midorikawa", as it may save his life someday. Be forewarned, should I happen to come across you, I can and will kill you both. _

_Curse my name and forget me. I have already done so for you._

_-Commander Midorikawa

* * *

_

Aralia folded the letter, a feeling of numbness overriding all other bodily functions. As the paper fluttered from her hand and onto the ground, Hikaru began to wail.


	2. October, AC 184

Disclaimer-I don't own Gundam Wing

Lynn-Hey, you spelled a review right! Ducks Just kidding. Just refrain from any form of net-speak, okay?

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October, AC 184

* * *

"Hikaru? Hikaru!"

Hikaru looked up from where he was playing. His current plaything consisted of a GI doll with half a left arm, a missing leg, and a mauled head from when he had wrestled it from a dog's mouth, at the expense of the GI's eye, cheek, and half his nose.

"Uh-huh?" Hikaru called back.

"Where are you, honey?"

"The living room," he answered.

Aralia entered the living room, her blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, wiping her hands with a dish towel. "Mama's having company tonight, so if you hear someone at the door, you know what to do, right?"

"Hide in the boiler room closet until you come and get me, right, Mama?"

"Good boy." Aralia leaned over and ruffled his chocolate brown hair. He shared the sharp shape of her own blonde locks but took his hair color from a mix between Gendo and Heero. "And if Mama has to leave, you wait until everyone has left, and then you run upstairs and Mrs. Preskov will look after you, all right?"

"Uh-huh." Hikaru averted his attention once again to his GI.

"You!" Aralia grabbed Hikaru by the underarms and whisked him into the air, him gripping the GI even as he flew, as it seemed to him. "Mama loves you, you know that?" She turned him around and planted a kiss on his nose. "Who loves you, Hikaru?"

"Mama does."

"That's right. Does anyone in the whole Earth Sphere love you as much as Mama does?"

"Uh-uh. 'Specially not Papa."

Aralia seemed to freeze for a moment. Her gleeful eyes faltered for a few seconds, though her smile spread as if to make up for it. "That's right, Hikaru. Papa doesn't love you nearly as much as Mama does."

"Nope." Hikaru stuck the GI's ruined head in his mouth and began chewing on it.

"I'm sure that's not tasty, Hikaru," Aralia said, pulling the toy from his mouth. "Are you hungry?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, dinner's almost ready, just as soon as you hear a _Ding!_, we'll sit down and eat. Now, you know what'll get you nice and hungry?"

"The flowers!" Hikaru yelled triumphantly.

"That's right, my smart little boy!" Aralia tossed him into the air a few inches and caught him again. "I'll go get a blanket and we'll sit outside until dinner's ready."

She sat him on the ground and went to retrieve the faded-yellow quilt that she had made long before Hikaru's birth. She returned to the living room and took Hikaru's hand, leading him through the warmth of their small apartment's kitchen, and through the back door. The cold October wind cut through their long-sleeved shirts, but Aralia sat down on the wooden platform that served as a back porch, sat Hikaru in her lap, and draped the quilt over her shoulders, making sure she covered every bit of Hikaru except his head with it.

Arrayed before them was a sea of yellow daisies, carefully tended by Aralia on Saturdays, owned by the middle-aged landlady, Mrs. Preskov, who lived in the apartment above, and dearly loved by Hikaru. Many a day Aralia would come home from work to see the landlady swaying back and forth on a rocking chair, watching Hikaru as he, with the careful precision of a toddler, peeled open flowers to investigate within.

"What do you like about the daisies, Hikaru?" Aralia asked.

"They're pretty."

"And why are they pretty?" she asked coyly.

"'Cause Mama tends them," he answered promptly.

She laughed and kissed the top of his head. "Mama tends them with love, and that's why they're pretty. I grow them for you, Hikaru."

"Thank you."

"No need, sweetheart." She tickled him, and he squirmed underneath the blanket. "I just do it to make you happy." She took hold of his sides and turned him around so he was looking up into her face. "Now, someday when you're all grown up, you're gonna have someone you love. You're gonna have someone to grow flowers for. Now, promise me that you won't forget to grow those flowers for them?"

"I won't," Hikaru promised solemnly.

"Good boy." She kissed his forehead, and then his nose, and then turned him around so he faced the flowers.

"Did Papa grow you flowers?" Hikaru asked.

Aralia's breath gave a quick gasp at the abruptness of the question. Hikaru enjoyed the topic of his father's disappearance, drinking up every detail she saw fit to give him, as it only fueled his love for her. Aralia, however, feared the topic, thinking it might make her bitter towards her own son.

"Papa grew flowers for me, yes," Aralia said slowly. She paused and thought of Gendo. She had met him one year after her father's death as she struggled to find work. He was secure in his finances as a retired Alliance general, rich from his own gains and his pension. He had hired her as a maid in his mansion. A fairy tale romance later, they were married.

The politics of the situation though—a dyed-in-the-wool Alliance supporter and Heero Yuy's daughter—was enough to drive them apart, not even their son becoming a connection. She had never heard from him again after she had ripped up the note and dropped it in the wastebasket. Hikaru had neither meeting nor picture that spelled out his father to him, only his curiosity paving the way for knowing the man whose name he had taken.

"But the flowers died," she continued. "And he was so upset at the flowers dying that he left." Her countenance saddened for a moment, and she rested her chin on his head.

"Mama?" Hikaru leaned his head back so his Prussian blue eyes stared up into her ocean-colored ones.

She smiled at him, a smile both happy and sad. "But he left me one flower, the most beautiful flower of all. He left me you."

"Silly. I'm not a flower."

"You're MY flower," Aralia said, hugging him close to her stomach.

Hikaru made a small noise and settled into comfort against her torso. For a few moments, all that surrounded mother and child were the daisies swaying in the breeze.

The moment ended with the egg timer going off.

"That's dinner, Hikaru," Aralia said. "Still hungry?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Well, I am, too," Aralia said. She gently pushed Hikaru off her lap and stood, undraping the quilt from her shoulders. "Let's go in and eat, Hikaru, I don't want the meatloaf to get cold."

* * *

Hikaru shut the door behind him and crouched in a tight ball beside the large boiler, leaning his head in the crack between the wall and the cylindrical metal of the boiler. The room was comfortably warm, and the door was permeable enough to allow him to hear conversations between his mother and her guests.

"Oh, Odin, it's just you."

"Yeah, the others still think it's too risky to show up here all at once."

"Go into the kitchen and get yourself some dinner. I'm going to make sure Hikaru knows that it's okay to come out."

Aralia's hand was on the doorknob when Hikaru's was, and she nearly tripped backwards as Hikaru pushed as she pulled.

"Odin's here?" Hikaru asked needlessly.

"Yes. Come on, let's go to the kitchen." She took his hand and led him down the hall and into the kitchen.

"Hello, Hikaru," Odin said, peering over the tabletop at the boy as Aralia sat down and pulled him into her lap. She sat at the head of the table, and he at the first seat to her right.

"Hello," Hikaru responded, twisting the tablecloth around his pointer finger.

"So, what've you found out?" Aralia asked.

Odin took a sip of coffee he had poured from the leftovers of this morning. "Not anything good. The Alliance is still planning to take over this colony."

"And what are they planning to do?"

He took another sip, harder and angrier this time. "Subjugate the population. Draft any man or woman of military age, regardless of circumstance, into their army. Exploit our resource satellite, and of course, blame the Winner family for it. Basically become a military dictatorship. As per usual."

"When?" Aralia asked, her voice calm but her nervousness showing through her sudden need to pet Hikaru's hair. "Regardless of circumstance"…should she be drafted forcibly, they'd leave her child to starve. She knew of the war orphans in other colonies, mostly the L2 colonies, who were taking care of themselves by stealing from the already poor people. That was not the life she wanted for Hikaru. He didn't know the first thing about stealing, and how much could he possibly be able to pull off should he try? His 4th birthday was still a month off, there was no way someone as young as he could survive without her.

"Couldn't work out the exact date, but most likely within this month." He sipped again for a long time, thinking things over. When he put down the cup, he looked directly at Aralia.

"I think it's time for you to leave, Aralia."

"What?" She was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's obvious what you're worried about." Hikaru looked up as Odin's hand swept toward him. "I'd take him in myself, but unless you really want an assassin raising your kid…especially _this_ assassin…"

He trailed off. Aralia's face seemed blank. She gently pulled Hikaru's hands off the tablecloth and held them in her lap.

"If you were still working against our cause," she said, quietly but with fierce eye contact, "I would shoot you on sight. As it is I'm already disobeying Papa's teachings against revenge and bloodshed. But seeing as you're now on my side, I will _not_ hold Papa's death against you. I hold it against Septem. But should you ever betray me…" She slammed her hand on the table. "I will not hesitate to kill you."

Odin's hand was suddenly on top of hers. "That's one thing you can be sure of, Aralia, I won't betray you."

Aralia seemed to freeze for a moment. Hikaru stared at Odin's hand on top of his mother's. Very slowly, without knowing just what it meant but knowing it meant something important, he tentatively reached out and placed his own small hand on top of Odin's.

The spell seemed broken. Aralia pulled her hand out from the bottom of the pile and guided Hikaru's away.

"No, Odin."

He was silent for a moment, staring at the table where all of them had contributed a small piece of their respective heart. Then he cleared his throat.

"Think about what I'm saying," he said, in a clear, emotionless voice. "This will be a bigger battle than we're used to. If you really want to risk your life, you should at least secure some means for him to survive without becoming a vagabond. If you'd prefer to live, I advise getting out of here now."

"Thanks for your advice," she said, equally passive.

"Aralia…I didn't want to tell you this, but I guess I have to. Midorikawa is going to head this battle."

Her eyes widened for a split second, but swiftly melted into a glare.

"Papa's leading a battle?" Hikaru asked, staring up at Aralia.

"Hikaru, please go into the living room and shut the door behind you."

"Okay." Hikaru slid off her lap and padded across the room. When the click of the knob aligning with the door jamb was heard, Aralia let out a string of swear words in both English and Russian that even Odin flinched at.

"He was serious. He would really kill Hikaru and me," she spat bitterly. "I won't let him. He'll be blown to bits before I let him lay eyes upon Hikaru, let alone harm him."

"Then what? Suppose you do kill him. You'll be on the run. Imagine how Hikaru will live as a fugitive. And you might have to abandon him on the way, for his own good. He's already missing a father, what would he do without a mother? And if you get killed while trying to destroy Midorikawa…"

Aralia was silent.

"You should leave, Aralia. Leave your revenge until Hikaru can live on his own. Midorikawa will get his, but you don't want it to backlash on your child, do you?"

More silence answered Odin's statement. Odin stared at Aralia for minutes that seemed like hours, but her face was somewhere far away.

"Fine…I will leave." She turned back towards him. "But I _do_ have a condition."

"What?"

"Next time I hear of Midorikawa, you might not be around to talk me out of killing him. And should the incident of my death by him come to pass, it's _you_ I want to look after Hikaru."

"Me?"

"Who else? You'll be the last one left after the Alliance takes over this colony."

"But I just told you, how will he live as a fugitive?"

"This is the worst-case scenario, Odin. You'll take him if I die. As soon as he's ready to live on his own, you can leave him where you know he'll be safe. But until then, you'll be his father."

"Is that the closest I'll ever get to being his father?" Odin shot at her.

Aralia did not flinch. Her eyes never breaking contact with his, she nodded her head.

Odin swore quietly. He pulled a cigarette and a lighter out of his pocket.

"Don't smoke in my house. It's bad for my son."

"You'd drive any man to smoking, Aralia." He slowly put the items away. "If we make it out of this war, I swear I'll make you mine."

"Challenge extended," she deadpanned, without sarcasm. "Do you agree to my conditions?"

"Yeah."

"Good…and thank you."

She stood from the table, and he followed suite. Both passed through the doorway.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop, Hikaru," Aralia said without looking at her son.

"…Sorry."

"Just don't do it again, Hikaru, it's impolite." She led Odin towards the door and opened it. The October night was slowly settling into freezing cold, and the synthetic stars of the colony were shining. The constellation Orion was showing.

"Really should teach the kids some manners," Odin commented.

"When you are a single mother with a toddler and a two-digit job, you can lecture me on teaching manners."

Odin did not remark. He stared at Aralia for a long time, and she did not look away. Then, with the speed of lighting, his hands were on her face and his lips on hers. The kiss lasted for an eternal three seconds that numbed Aralia's mind, and all she wanted to do was respond to the warmth of it, a warmth she had not felt for over 4 years.

As soon as it began it was over. Odin released her face, muttered a quick farewell, and left the door swinging open as he walked down the driveway, turned onto the sidewalk, and disappeared into the night beyond the dimly-lit streetlamps.

Aralia slowly and methodically shut the door as she turned. Hikaru slid off the couch and ran to her, wrapping his arms around her legs.

"Are you okay, Mama?" he asked eagerly, looking up at her.

"I'm fine, Hikaru." She knelt down to his level and stroked the side of his face. "Listen up, sweetheart. We have to go away for a while. Now, if I go missing, you get to the nearest safe place and Odin will find you when he can, okay?"

"Okay."

"And understand this, Hikaru. That man, Odin Lowe, loves you more than your Papa does, or ever did."

"But you love me most, right Mama?"

"But I love you most," she answered, kissing his forehead. "Off to bed now, Hikaru, we have a big day coming up."

She stood and took his hand. She took him down the hallway and tucked him into bed. To his sleepy "'Night" she responded by blowing a kiss. As she flicked off the light and shut the door behind her, she sunk to the floor and cried.


End file.
